Grouped Notifications

11 min read

title: Grouped notifications API methods
description: Receive grouped notifications for activity on your account or statuses.
menu:
docs:
weight: 50
name: grouped notifications
parent: methods
identifier: methods-grouped-notifications
aliases: [
“/methods/grouped_notifications”,
“/api/methods/grouped_notifications”,

] #

This page is about grouped notifications, which we implemented server-side so that:

grouping is consistent across clients
clients do not run into the issue of going through entire pages that do not contribute to any new group; instead, notifications are already deduplicated server-side

The API shape is a bit different from the non-grouped notifications, because large notification groups usually tend to involve the same accounts, and moving accounts to a root key can avoid a lot of duplication, resulting in less server-side work and smaller network payloads.

Get all grouped notifications {#get-grouped} #

GET /api/v2/notifications HTTP/1.1

Return grouped notifications concerning the user. This API returns Link headers containing links to the next/previous page. However, the links can also be constructed dynamically using query params and id values.

Notifications of type favourite, follow or reblog with the same type and the same target made in a similar timeframe are given a same group_key by the server, and querying this endpoint will return aggregated notifications, with only one object per group_key. Other notification types may be grouped in the future. The grouped_types parameter should be used by the client to explictely list the types it supports showing grouped notifications for.

Types to filter include:

mention = Someone mentioned you in their status
status = Someone you enabled notifications for has posted a status
reblog = Someone boosted one of your statuses
follow = Someone followed you
follow_request = Someone requested to follow you
favourite = Someone favourited one of your statuses
poll = A poll you have voted in or created has ended
update = A status you boosted with has been edited
admin.sign_up = Someone signed up (optionally sent to admins)
admin.report = A new report has been filed

Returns: GroupedNotificationsResults\
OAuth: User token + read:notifications\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

Request #

Headers #

Authorization
: {{}} Provide this header with Bearer <user token> to gain authorized access to this API method.

Query parameters #

max_id
: String. All results returned will be about notifications strictly older than this notification ID. In effect, sets an upper bound on results.

since_id
: String. All results returned will be about notifications strictly newer than this notification ID. In effect, sets a lower bound on results.

min_id
: String. Returns results about notifications immediately newer than this notification ID. In effect, sets a cursor at this ID and paginates forward.

limit
: Integer. Maximum number of results to return. Defaults to 40 notifications. Max 80 notification groups.

types[]
: Array of String. Types to include in the result.

exclude_types[]
: Array of String. Types to exclude from the results.

account_id
: String. Return only notifications received from the specified account.

expand_accounts
: String. One of full (default) or partial_avatars. When set to partial_avatars, some accounts will not be rendered in full in the returned accounts list but will be instead returned in stripped-down form in the partial_accounts list. The most recent account in a notification group is always rendered in full in the accounts attribute.

grouped_types[]
: Array of String. Restrict which notification types can be grouped. Use this if there are notification types for which your client does not support grouping. If omitted, the server will group notifications of all types it supports (currently, favourite, follow and reblog). If you do not want any notification grouping, use [GET /api/v1/notifications]({{< relref “methods/notifications#get” >}}) instead.

Response #

Sample call with limit=2.

GET https://mastodon.social/api/v2/notifications?limit=2 HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer xxx

200: OK #

The response body contains one page of grouped notifications. You can use the HTTP Link header for further pagination.

Link: <https://mastodon.social/api/v2/notifications?limit=2&max_id=196012>; rel="next", <https://mastodon.social/api/v2/notifications?limit=2&min_id=196014>; rel="prev";

{
  "accounts": [
    {
      "id": "16",
      "username": "eve",
      "acct": "eve",
      // …
    },
    {
      "id": "3547",
      "username": "alice",
      "acct": "alice",
      // …
    },
    {
      "id": "31460",
      "username": "bob",
      "acct": "bob",
      // …
    },
    {
      "id": "36509",
      "username": "mallory",
      "acct": "mallory",
      // …
    }
  ],
  "statuses": [
    {
      "id": "113010503322889311",
      "created_at": "2024-08-23T08:57:12.057Z",
      "account": {
        "id": "55911",
        "username": "user",
        "acct": "user",
        // …
      },
      // …
    },
    {
      "id": "113006771938929950",
      "created_at": "2024-08-22T17:08:15.654Z",
      "account": {
        "id": "55911",
        "username": "user",
        "acct": "user",
        // …
      },
      // …
    }
  ],
  "notification_groups": [
    {
      "group_key": "favourite-113010503322889311-479000",
      "notifications_count": 2,
      "type": "favourite",
      "most_recent_notification_id": 196014,
      "page_min_id": "196013",
      "page_max_id": "196014",
      "latest_page_notification_at": "2024-08-23T08:59:56.743Z",
      "sample_account_ids": [
        "16",
        "3547"
      ],
      "status_id": "113010503322889311"
    },
    {
      "group_key": "favourite-113006771938929950-478999",
      "notifications_count": 2,
      "type": "favourite",
      "most_recent_notification_id": 196012,
      "page_min_id": "196012",
      "page_max_id": "196012",
      "latest_page_notification_at": "2024-08-23T08:16:32.112Z",
      "sample_account_ids": [
        "31460",
        "36509"
      ],
      "status_id": "113006771938929950"
    }
  ]
}

401: Unauthorized #

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

Get a single notification group {#get-notification-group} #

GET /api/v2/notifications/:group_key HTTP/1.1

View information about a specific notification group with a given group key.

Request #

Path parameters #

:group_key
: {{}} String. The group key of the notification group.

Headers #

Authorization
: {{}} Provide this header with Bearer <user token> to gain authorized access to this API method.

Response #

200: OK #

On success, returns a GroupedNotificationsResults with a single notification group.

{
  "accounts": [
    {
      "id": "16",
      "username": "eve",
      "acct": "eve",
      // …
    },
    {
      "id": "3547",
      "username": "alice",
      "acct": "alice",
      // …
    }
  ],
  "statuses": [
    {
      "id": "113010503322889311",
      "created_at": "2024-08-23T08:57:12.057Z",
      "account": {
        "id": "55911",
        "username": "user",
        "acct": "user",
        // …
      },
      // …
    }
  ],
  "notification_groups": [
    {
      "group_key": "favourite-113010503322889311-479000",
      "notifications_count": 2,
      "type": "favourite",
      "most_recent_notification_id": 196014,
      "sample_account_ids": [
        "16",
        "3547"
      ],
      "status_id": "113010503322889311"
    }
  ]
}

401: Unauthorized #

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

Dismiss a single notification group {#dismiss-group} #

POST /api/v2/notifications/:group_key/dismiss HTTP/1.1

Dismiss a single notification group from the server.

Returns: Empty\
OAuth: User token + write:notifications\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

Request #

Path parameters #

:group_key
: {{}} String. The group key of the notifications to discard.

Headers #

Authorization
: {{}} Provide this header with Bearer <user token> to gain authorized access to this API method.

Response #

200: OK #

Upon a successful request, notifications with the given group key are successfully dismissed.

{}

401: Unauthorized #

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

Get accounts of all notifications in a notification group {#get-group-accounts} #

GET /api/v2/notifications/:group_key/accounts HTTP/1.1

Returns: Array of [Account]({{< relref “entities/Account” >}})\
OAuth: User token + write:notifications\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

Request #

Path parameters #

:group_key
: {{}} String. The group key of the notifications to get accounts from.

Headers #

Authorization
: {{}} Provide this header with Bearer <user token> to gain authorized access to this API method.

Response #

200: OK #

[
  {
    "id": "16",
    "username": "eve",
    "acct": "eve"
    // …
  },
  {
    "id": "3547",
    "username": "alice",
    "acct": "alice"
    // …
  }
]

401: Unauthorized #

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

Get the number of unread notifications {#unread-group-count} #

GET /api/v2/notifications/unread_count HTTP/1.1

Get the (capped) number of unread notification groups for the current user.
A notification is considered unread if it is more recent than the [notifications read marker]({{< relref “methods/markers” >}}).
Because the count is dependant on the parameters, it is computed every time and is thus a relatively slow operation (although faster than getting the full corresponding notifications), therefore the number of returned notifications is capped.

Returns: Hash with a single key of count\
OAuth: User token + read:notifications\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

Request #

Headers #

Authorization
: {{}} Provide this header with Bearer <user token> to gain authorized access to this API method.

Query parameters #

limit
: Integer. Maximum number of results to return. Defaults to 100 notifications. Max 1000 notifications.

types[]
: Array of String. Types of notifications that should count towards unread notifications.

exclude_types[]
: Array of String. Types of notifications that should not count towards unread notifications.

account_id
: String. Only count unread notifications received from the specified account.

grouped_types[]
: Array of String. Restrict which notification types can be grouped. Use this if there are notification types for which your client does not support grouping. If omitted, the server will group notifications of all types it supports (currently, favourite, follow and reblog). If you do not want any notification grouping, use [GET /api/v1/notifications/unread_count]({{< relref “methods/notifications#unread-count” >}}) instead.

Response #

200: OK #

The response body contains the capped count of unread notifications.

{
  "count": 42,
}

401: Unauthorized #

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

`GroupedNotificationsResults` entity {#GroupedNotificationsResults} #

Attributes #

`accounts` #

Description: Accounts referenced by grouped notifications.\
Type: Array of [Account]({{< relref “entities/Account” >}})\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`partial_accounts` {{%optional%}} #

Description: Partial accounts referenced by grouped notifications. Those are only returned when requesting grouped notifications with expand_accounts=partial_avatars.
Type: Array of PartialAccountWithAvatar\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`statuses` #

Description: Statuses referenced by grouped notifications.\
Type: Array of [Status]({{< relref “entities/Status” >}}}\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`notification_groups` #

Description: The grouped notifications themselves.
Type: NotificationGroup\
Version history:
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

Examples #

TODO

`PartialAccountWithAvatar` entity {#PartialAccountWithAvatar} #

These are stripped-down versions of [Account]({{< relref “entities/Account” >}}) that only contain what is necessary to display a list of avatars, as well as a few other useful properties. The aim is to cut back on expensive server-side serialization and reduce the network payload size of notification groups.

Attributes #

`id` #

Description: The account id.\
Type: String (cast from an integer, but not guaranteed to be a number)\
Version history:\
4.3.0 – added

`acct` #

Description: The Webfinger account URI. Equal to username for local users, or username@domain for remote users.\
Type: String\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`url` #

Description: The location of the user’s profile page.\
Type: String (URL)\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`avatar` #

Description: An image icon that is shown next to statuses and in the profile.\
Type: String (URL)\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`avatar_static` #

Description: A static version of the avatar. Equal to avatar if its value is a static image; different if avatar is an animated GIF.\
Type: String (URL)\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`locked` #

Description: Whether the account manually approves follow requests.\
Type: Boolean\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`bot` #

Description: Indicates that the account may perform automated actions, may not be monitored, or identifies as a robot.\
Type: Boolean\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

Examples #

TODO

—

`NotificationGroup` entity {#NotificationGroup} #

Attributes #

`group_key` #

Description: Group key identifying the grouped notifications. Should be treated as an opaque value.\
Type: String\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`notifications_count` #

Description: Total number of individual notifications that are part of this notification group.\
Type: Integer\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`type` #

Description: The type of event that resulted in the notifications in this group.\
Type: String (Enumerable oneOf)\
mention = Someone mentioned you in their status\
status = Someone you enabled notifications for has posted a status\
reblog = Someone boosted one of your statuses\
follow = Someone followed you\
follow_request = Someone requested to follow you\
favourite = Someone favourited one of your statuses\
poll = A poll you have voted in or created has ended\
update = A status you interacted with has been edited\
admin.sign_up = Someone signed up (optionally sent to admins)\
admin.report = A new report has been filed\
severed_relationships = Some of your follow relationships have been severed as a result of a moderation or block event\
moderation_warning = A moderator has taken action against your account or has sent you a warning\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`most_recent_notification_id` #

Description: ID of the most recent notification in the group.\
Type: String\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`page_min_id` {{%optional%}} #

Description: ID of the oldest notification from this group represented within the current page. This is only returned when paginating through notification groups. Useful when polling new notifications.\
Type: String\
Version history:
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`page_max_id` {{%optional%}} #

Description: ID of the newest notification from this group represented within the current page. This is only returned when paginating through notification groups. Useful when polling new notifications.\
Type: String\
Version history:
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`latest_page_notification_at` {{%optional%}} #

Description: Date at which the most recent notification from this group within the current page has been created. This is only returned when paginating through notification groups.\
Type: String (ISO 8601 Datetime)\
Version history:
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`sample_account_ids` #

Description: IDs of some of the accounts who most recently triggered notifications in this group.\
Type: Array of String\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`status_id` {{%optional%}} #

Description: ID of the [Status]({{< relref “entities/Status” >}}) that was the object of the notification. Attached when type of the notification is favourite, reblog, status, mention, poll, or update.\
Type: String\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`report` {{%optional%}} #

Description: Report that was the object of the notification. Attached when type of the notification is admin.report.\
Type: [Report]({{< relref “entities/Report” >}})\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`event` {{%optional%}} #

Description: Summary of the event that caused follow relationships to be severed. Attached when type of the notification is severed_relationships.\
Type: [RelationshipSeveranceEvent]({{< relref “entities/RelationshipSeveranceEvent” >}})\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

`moderation_warning` {{%optional%}} #

Description: Moderation warning that caused the notification. Attached when type of the notification is moderation_warning.\
Type: [AccountWarning]({{< relref “entities/AccountWarning” >}})\
Version history:\
4.3.0 (mastodon [API version]({{< relref “entities/Instance#api-versions” >}}) 2) – added

Examples #

TODO

] #

Get all grouped notifications {#get-grouped} #

Request #

Headers #

Query parameters #

Response #

200: OK #

401: Unauthorized #

Get a single notification group {#get-notification-group} #

Request #

Path parameters #

Headers #

Response #

200: OK #

401: Unauthorized #

Dismiss a single notification group {#dismiss-group} #

Request #

Path parameters #

Headers #

Response #

200: OK #

401: Unauthorized #

Get accounts of all notifications in a notification group {#get-group-accounts} #

Request #

Path parameters #

Headers #

Response #

200: OK #

401: Unauthorized #

Get the number of unread notifications {#unread-group-count} #

Request #

Headers #

Query parameters #

Response #

200: OK #

401: Unauthorized #

GroupedNotificationsResults entity {#GroupedNotificationsResults} #

Attributes #

accounts #

partial_accounts {{%optional%}} #

statuses #

notification_groups #

Examples #

PartialAccountWithAvatar entity {#PartialAccountWithAvatar} #

Attributes #

id #

acct #

url #

avatar #

avatar_static #

locked #

bot #

Examples #

NotificationGroup entity {#NotificationGroup} #

Attributes #

group_key #

notifications_count #

type #

most_recent_notification_id #

page_min_id {{%optional%}} #

page_max_id {{%optional%}} #

latest_page_notification_at {{%optional%}} #

sample_account_ids #

status_id {{%optional%}} #

report {{%optional%}} #

event {{%optional%}} #

moderation_warning {{%optional%}} #

Examples #

See also #

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`GroupedNotificationsResults` entity {#GroupedNotificationsResults} #

`accounts` #

`partial_accounts` {{%optional%}} #

`statuses` #

`notification_groups` #

`PartialAccountWithAvatar` entity {#PartialAccountWithAvatar} #

`id` #

`acct` #

`url` #

`avatar` #

`avatar_static` #

`locked` #

`bot` #

`NotificationGroup` entity {#NotificationGroup} #

`group_key` #

`notifications_count` #

`type` #

`most_recent_notification_id` #

`page_min_id` {{%optional%}} #

`page_max_id` {{%optional%}} #

`latest_page_notification_at` {{%optional%}} #

`sample_account_ids` #

`status_id` {{%optional%}} #

`report` {{%optional%}} #

`event` {{%optional%}} #

`moderation_warning` {{%optional%}} #